Vanguard
By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South, Samuel Oyadongha; Vincent Ujumadu; Peter Okutu; Ugochukwu Alaribe; Chioma Onuegbu; Chinonso Alozie; Ozioruva Aliu and Steve Oko
Residents of the South South and South East geopolitical zones of the country now live in fear. They are worried and very disturbed. This followed the killing of law enforcement agents in their regions by gunmen. In the last three months, gun men have killed no fewer than 67 law enforcement agents and burnt down over 50 police formations in the South South and the South East.
Many of the residents have therefore expressed fear that this development may get out of hand if the government fails to urgently arrest the situation. A cross section of residents of Imo, Abia states who spoke to Vanguard lamented that they were now living in fear because of the attacks on security agents and their formations. They urged the security agencies to focus more on intelligence gathering and unravel the perpetrators of the serial attacks in the South East and South south zones. Emeka Diwe, President of the Southeast Towns Union raised questions for the police and Imo Government on the arson on the Police Headquarters and Correctional Centre in Owerri on Monday. Said he: The police are suspects in this matter, so is also the state government. How did the attack on police headquarters take place without any counter from the police? The hoodlums came and torched police headquarters and went away like that? Something must be fishy. The government house is also very close to the prison and police headquarters. The gunshots lasted for long. How come nothing happened from government house? Something is fishy. It means nobody is safe anymore.” Gunmen attacked the two places close to government house on Monday, burning the correctional centre and setting inmates free and torching the police headquarters without any confrontation. Chidi Osuagwu, former chairman of state chapter of Ohaneze said what happened in Owerri was strange ‘since it is not in our culture to attack security men. Something must be wrong somewhere and unfortunately the common man is affected. We now live in fear.”
A resident of Abakaliki in Ebonyi state, Mr Don Steve in his reaction yesterday stated that the people of the state were disturbed and worried about the unfortunate development. He said, “if security personnel who were trained to defend and protect the citizens of this country are killed at will, what then is the future of citizens. The development, has however revealed that there’s a challenge with the police in this country. It’s either they are not properly motivated or that their morale for the job has gone down drastically. They need to be motivated. Policemen in those days were different from the ones we are seeing today and this is quite unfortunate.
Gunmen building up for something bigger
Secretary General of the Chidi Ibeh faction of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, expressed fear that the killing of security agents in the South East and South South zones may lead to full scale banditry in the region if not tackled. Isiguzoro who spoke to Vanguard in Umuahia, stated that from the manner of the attacks, the gunmen may be building up for a full scale banditry in the two regions and urged the federal government to urgently take proactive steps to end banditry in the country. He attributed the attack on security men to the desire by the gunmen to instill fear in the government and people of Nigeria to achieve their aims.
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